New Patent Granted to Symantec for Speed-Enhancing,Virus Scanning Technology

Newly Patented Technology Maintains Balance Between Security and Efficiency

CUPERTINO, Calif. - April 27, 2000 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced a new patent on technology that will speed up the process for scanning files on PCs and servers as well as files sent over the Web. Issued patent #6021510 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Symantec has been granted rights to the technology that will increase the speed of virus scanning and reduce the amount of data required for scanning.

"Today, files travelling over the Internet may be scanned multiple times for computer viruses, causing excessive wait times for users," said Carey Nachenberg, chief researcher, Symantec AntiVirus Research Centre (SARC). "This patented technology can be used to eliminate redundant scans and reduce these wait times. Inventions such as this become critical as Symantec further integrates its anti-virus and content security technologies into the Internet."

The newly patented technology uses before and after "snapshots" of programs to check for significant changes to a file content. Snapshots of a program scanned prior to infection can be compared to current ones, indicating if there is a virus present. While this method has been used for years, the new technology uses an optimally small set of snapshots resulting in a reduction in scanning time and data storage. When coupled with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), this technology can be used to reduce scan times as files travel over networks.

About Symantec
Symantec, a world leader in Internet security technology, provides content security solutions to enterprise organisations and helps companies manage and support workforces that use computers and other mobile devices.

Symantec's Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver. For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, contact the Canadian office at (416) 441-3676 or access Symantec's Canadian web-site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST).

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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT: This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are certain important factors that could cause Symantec's future development efforts to differ materially from those anticipated by some of the statements made above. Among these are the anticipation of the growth of certain market segments, the positioning of Symantec's products in those segments, the competitive environment in the software industry, new security threats, dependence on other products, changes to operating systems and product strategy by vendors of operating systems, and the importance of new Symantec products. Additional information concerning those and other factors is contained in the "Risk Factors" section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 2, 1999.